International Visual Theatre Festival NuQ Treff

NuQ Treff is a festival of modern visual theatre with the goal of introducing and popularising modern puppet arts, preserving and continuing puppetry traditions and surprising with art forms we never even knew existed.

The festival offers fresh and original visual theatre without language barriers for children, youth and adults alike.

A grand total of 22 performances from 10 countries will take place at the International Visual Theatre Festival NuQ Treff on June 1-4, 2017.

The visual theatre festival NUKU theatre has been organising since 2007 is now called NuQ Treff.

Previously known as Tallinn Treff Festival or just Treff renews not only its name but the program structure and visual image as well. This year's editions main performances are by Gisèle Vienne’i and Paul Zaloom.

The main focus of the festival is still on top notch visual theatre performances for adults and children alike, but the side program of Talks, Workshops and Club is much more elaborate and an important part of the festival that promotes visual theatre and puppetry for the wider audience. The centre of the festival is renewed NUKU theatre and museum complex in the Old Town of Tallinn, with additional venues in Von Krahl Theatre, Kanuti Gild Hall, Sõltumatu Tantsu Lava in Telliskivi Creative City and in Estonian Art Museum KUMU.

The program of the festival is chosen by the artistic director of NuQ Treff, Mr Vahur Keller. Many of the shows have been invited after seeing them at the Festival Mondial des Théâtres de Marionnettes in Charleville-Mézières, France.

„Gisèle Vienne is famous for her honest, sharp and physically compelling stage language. She's one of the artists I have been wanting to get to our festival for years," says Keller. Vienne's The Ventriloquists Convention premiered in 2015 and is based on a real ventriloquist conference held annually in Kentucky state. Similarly to real life, a group of different characters come on stage but in the performance the characters also reveal their darker side. The Ventriloquists Convention is on stage at NuQ Treff Ferdinand Hall on June 3.

The second head-liner is political satire artist Paul Zaloom from USA. His humour that touches upon the foolishness and corruption of the society is downright blunt. "He is a living legend in the U.S where he has done many popular TV shows and made thousands laugh," comments Mr. Keller. "Zaloom does not hold back! He says what he thinks and the results are painfully and comically on point," affirms the artistic director. The show White Like Me expresses politically incorrect opinions and the ideas of an average white person through different puppets and objects and is on stage at NuQ Treff on June 4.